Happy New Year!

New Year, New Blog... Hopefully this year I can start it right and follow through with a little snippit a few times a week. I'm not going to do the daily commitment, because it puts too much pressure on me and I throw it all away then, so three times a week is my goal. Today I want to share my craft room with you...
This is my scrapdesk... I have all of my supplies right on hand and easy to reach here.

On the right side is a spice rack with brads, buttons, eyelets and other small metal embellishments. Next to it is my personal printer, which was such a great investment for me. I sort by color... Next are jars with my ribbon. On the side is my binder with my quickutz dies and clear stamps. Below my cuttlebug and pampered chef turner with all my tools in it. Sharp objects had to move higher from little hands. In the colored boxes below I have kits and accessories sorted by theme, winter spring summer fall, Matthew, Taylor, Family.

In the middle is my cricut and sizzix dies in the tower, green and yellow dies. Then of course is my workspace and the pull out tray has my paper cutters.

On the left... Sketches are in the file box and pictures are in the accordian file. the drawers are colored embellishments that don't have themes. Either kits from the store or swaps participated in. The bins hold (each one) wet adhesive, dry adhesive, and stapler type thingies (technical, I know). Below is a scrap bin and file box that has an "in progress", "to be put away" and words and phrases. Under the desk are my xyrons, other clunky equipment and two more theme boxes, vacations and Christmas. Below that is my cardstock, which is held up by a pan rack for the kitchen and smaller cardstock in the blue box.

In the cart I have (from top to bottom) writing instruments (chalk, pens, specialty markers), ink, ink and clear blocks, Coluzzle, paint, tools and other tools.



My closet... I love how organized it is... First across the entire top are other crafts, beading, scrapbooking projects, sewing, candle/soap making etc.

Left top to bottom... shelf (1) sizzlits alphas, cricut cartridges, (2) sizzix alphas, patterned paper by color, (3) accordian file with ideas two pull out kitchen carts with sizzix red dies in one and unmounted stamps in cds in the other (4) foam alpha stamps, and pull out of theme all in one kits, again labeled by the same process in the desk

Right top to bottom... shelf (1) misc crafting supplies that aren't used a lot (bottlecaps, cork, etc), on the go carrier when I want to do crafts in another room. (2) To be put away bin (which includes larger projects, sewing machine (3) Matthew;s crafts, larger pictures and school portraits. (4) ready made cards filed by theme, other crafts.




All of my scrapbooking books. I separated them by theme and put baskets so it didn't look like a book explosion. On the bottom I have magazines, which I have since covered the rack to match the room in red. 8x8 albums that I am starting soon are there. I am doing theme albums for vacations and whatnot in those.



And finally Matthew's side of the room. Right now it is train central (family was in town so we had an air mattress up there) but we do crafts in there. His table is out on the enclosed porch/Florida room now, but it may come back in.

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Marvelous Monday

Well, today is supposed to be all about scrapping, but wanted to share our weekend with you first...

We had a blast this weekend. Got to see the shuttle lift off from our house. It was amazing, the entire sky lit up. Saturday we took it easy and basically just relaxed, and yesterday we went to the Bucs game. It was fantastic. Had seats on the 50 yard line, and it was just a great game. Matthew was really good too, which was a big plus. Today we are going to Monkey Joes, which is a big play place around here. First time going, so I'll let you know how it is...

For scrapping today (it's going to be short and sweet), I am going to talk about personal die cutters. I have quite a few of them, and I wouldn't part with any of them... I have (in list of smallest to biggest) a cuttle bug (which is a personal cutter/embosser, etc) and a quickutz. I used to have a sizzix and sidekick, but sold them at a garage sale when I got the cuttlebug, as it is an all in one cutter. I still have all of my quickutz, sizzix, sizzlits and cuttlebug dies though, as they are universal and can be used in the one cutter. From there, electronic cutters... I have a Cricut and Craftrobo. Why both? Because they both offer different things. Cricut is fantastic, you can buy shape and letter cartridges, but I focus mostly on shapes now, since having the craftrobo. I have the designstudio for cricut too, which makes it even more versatile. Craftrobo, is great. There is a learning curve, but well worth it when you get past it. I have 1800 fonts on my computer and can cut each and every one, along with any die cuts that I scan in, any clip art, etc. The list goes on and on. It's hard to pick a favorite between them, because they are all so different, but I truly love them all. Later today I hope to share (since I didn't last week) stuff made with my cutters.

Reflecting on Beginner's Scrapbooking

I've been scrapbooking for the past nine years, and love it. It's my creative outlet and a wonderful way to preserve our memories of past and present. My kids of course are my number one subjects, but I've also worked on a heritage album for my mom for her 75th birthday and a gift baby album for my sister. My next big project is my wedding album and growing up years. I am really excited to be tackling this.


If you want to start scrapbooking, where do you begin? What tools do you need? What are nice extras to have? We will cover these three topics this week and i will share some pages of mine that I've been working on recently.


Basic Supplies:

• A paper trimmer is ideal (my favorite is Cutterpede), but if not, scissors or a craft knife and ruler can work too


• An Acid Free Album... Those magnetic albums from the 80s will destroy your photos. The acid eats away at the photos and will deteriorate them in a few years.


• Cardstock and patterned paper. It is nice to start with a coordinating package that has a variety of carstock and papers. If you want to start smaller and see if this hobby is for you, pick two to three colors of cardstock and one coordinating patterned paper


• Acid free glue/tape. I prefer tape runner, which you can find at craft stores. They are double sided and make your pages go much faster.


• Acid free pen for journaling about the event... telling your story


• Coordinating sticker, embellishments, etc

Some nice extras... paper trimmer is my number one extra, some ink for distressing the edges, ribbon, brads and eyelets, and paper punches... These are all embellishments and are no way necessary, but nice added extras.

Where to Begin?

1. First thing you need are photos. You don't want to start with something big like your wedding, because your taste will change and adapt over time. Pick a holiday or birthday, or some type of event that you are excited to do. You may have 30 pictures, you may have ten. Weed through those and pick out the best, usually between seven to ten pictures, unless you want to do more pages on that one event.


2. From these photos you will have a starting point, or a basis to go on for your layout. What is the mood? Who is involved? What do you want to portray from these photos? This can give you a basis of two to three colors that you may want to start with. For example, my son's first birthday was Baby Einstein themed, so I am planning on primary colors for his layout with a nice geometric pattern. I would pick red, yellow and blue


3. Take a look at your pictures and see what you can "crop" smaller. There may be a lot of wasted space on the photos, or background you don't need, so elminating that allows you to fit more on the page. To make your photos timeless, try not to cut in cutesy shapes such as stars or hearts... Squares and rectangles are ideal. Ideally you can have five full size photos and three smaller square photos on your layout without visual clutter.


4. After your photos are trimmed, matte your photos that you want to stand out. Choose one to three based on how many you have on your layout, so you can identify what you want highlighted. By matting your photo, just give it a half or quarter inch border around all sides. So if the phot was 4x6, you would have a 4.5x6.5 matte that you can put the photo. For my son's layout, I may choose to matte the picture of him with the cake, one of us as a family and one with gifts.


5. Arrange your photos on your page the way it makes sense to you. You want it to be visually stimulating, let it lead te eye across the page (which I will speak about more in the weeks ahead).


6. Make sure you save room on your page for a title, journaling and embellishments. That's what makes it a scrapbook. That way when someone is looking at your page, all of the explanation is right there. A title can be as simple as the event, or a quote (take me out to the ballgame for a baseball game), just let your imagination be your guide. Titles can be made on your computer, be pre-made or with stickers, stamps and stencils.


7. Journaling will give you a chance to express your feelings on that day. Take it beyond the who, what, where, when why and how, and talk about your feelings... How fast the first year went, and that you can't believe your son is already one... you get the picture


8. Add some creative touches, some embellishments or stickers that relate to the event, maybe some wrapped presents or party streamers. Try to keep them in groups of three, as that is more visually appealing to the eye.

That's it! Most of all, have fun! Remember, it is a hobby and something that shouldn't feel overwhelming. You may have years of photos and not know where to begin... Start with what is most current and work backwards. Those events are fresh in your mind and what will be a wonderful starting point. Best of luck and let me know if you need any help!

I will be posting my pages later today when my little guy is napping. Happy Scrapping!